Wireless networks typically include multiple stations that communicate with each other using radio frequency (RF) signals. In situations where multiple stations transmit signals at the same time, a receiving station will attempt to receive a signal from one station, and reject the signal from the other station. One of the transmitting stations is considered an “interfering station”, and the signal transmitted by the interfering station is considered an “interfering signal”. The other transmitting station is transmitting a “desired signal”. The receiving station tries to receive the desired signal while rejecting the interfering signal. If the transmitting stations transmit signals on the same wireless channel, the interference is commonly referred to as “co-channel interference” (CCI).
Desired and interfering signals are referred to as “asynchronous” when they are not aligned within a certain time tolerance. Co-channel interference caused by asynchronous signals is typically treated as additive white noise when trying to reject the interfering signals. Known methods exist to reduce CCI by treating the interfering signals as other than additive white noise, however these methods typically require that the desired and interfering signals are aligned within a particular tolerance.
Accordingly, a need exists to time-align wireless transmissions within a particular tolerance.